HUGE WILDFIRES RACE ACROSS WESTERN U.S.

Two dozen huge wildfires burned Tuesday across 150,000 acres of the West, with the largest blazes roaring through the bone-dry scrublands at the edge of the Mojave Desert.

Residents in Las Vegas, more than 200 miles away, reported seeing smoke drifting above their city from the Southern California fires.

Thousands of residents from five towns and settlements were ordered or asked to evacuate, and hundreds of campers were chased out of the forests.

A few dozen structures, including some homes and trailers, have been destroyed in Southern California. Five people were arrested Monday for looting the homes of residents fleeing the flames and smoke. One firefighter lost his life over the weekend, perhaps from heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 23 large fires reported in six Western states, being battled by 11,000 firefighters, supported by 849 engines, 102 helicopters and eight military C-130 aircraft converted to air tankers. Most of the firefighters have been shifted from Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Texas to work in Southern California.

Last week, the biggest blazes were in Northern California, where fires blackened 76,468 acres, with the largest burns centered in the Plumas, Shasta and Trinity National Forests between Sacramento and Redding. So smoky were the blazes that downtown Sacramento was veiled in gray ashy fog on Thursday.

"Right now, Southern California is the priority for fire managers," said Janelle Smith, an information officer with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which tracks the wildland fires around the country, serving as a sort of brokerage for firefighters and their equipment. "We've got fairly normal activity in the rest of western states."

This year, fires have burned across 4.2 million acres -- twice as much as the annual average.

The largest fire in Southern California is burning on 44,000 acres in the San Bernadino National Forest about 80 miles east of Los Angeles. This area is the eastern slopes of the San Bernadino Mountains, where they tumble down to the edge of the Mojave Desert. The fuel is cactus, scrub and Joshua trees. The fires can sweep across the open ground faster than any human can run.